V-Day @ Subclub 14/2/13

This Valentine’s day saw an end to soppy dates and the tugging of jealous heartstrings when our two local clubbing bad boys, Philanthrobeats and Rubix, teamed up to put the ‘V’ back in ‘Valentine’. Supporting the worldwide movement V-Day on their 15th Anniversary, ‘1 Billion Rising’ aimed to raise voices and shake booties in protest that 1 in 5 women will be raped or beaten in their lifetime.

The global activist movement aims to raise awareness and support women and girls around the world regardless of age, nationality, or religion, and for fifteen years has been doing just that. With most of the proceeds from V-Day events going to local projects and charities, often shelters and rape crisis centres.

It all began in 1994 when playwright and activist Eve Ensler wrote the groundbreaking piece ‘The Vagina Monologues’, a play based on interviews with women of different ages and nationalities dealing with what it means to be a female. The monologues range in scope from a girls’ first menstruation (‘When I Was Twelve, My Mother Slapped Me’), to the atrocities committed against women in Bosnian Rape Camps, entitled ‘My Vagina Was My Village’. V-Day was consequently established on Valentines Day 1998 when Eve and a group of New York women threw a single benefit; now there are over 5,800 V-Day events per year.

Needless to say one word is not shied away from in this cause, and it’s a word Philanthrobeats×Rubix took to heart, effectively turning the Subclub into a giant womb. Vaginas were everywhere, once down the stairs club-goers and philanthropists were welcomed at the ticket desk with a tunnel of vagina, pink, draping, alluring? There were vagina cupcakes and lollipops being sold by the bar, and over the bar itself an unforgettable painting by Sophie PP. The dance floor was plush and secluded, with a surprising amount of romance going on, and best of all- the ‘hidden alley’ behind the speakers was transformed into a beautiful funnel of love. Whatever names you have for the decorations, they certainly helped in making the night the success it was, with Subclub at capacity before doors closed.

With forty odd people involved in the production it’s no surprise so much attention is being dedicated to the decorations, the stage area played host to a video-mapped visual installation by Marco Biagini and his team, Produ[k]t, and visual artist Optik. However it’s important to note the message behind the madness. The boys wrote the following on the Event page on FB:

“We are not choosing to decorate the club as an ode to womanhood and as a sordid statement, nor is the associated imagery of the vagina intended to be pornographic or perverted. We wish to de-censor something that is suppressed across many societies: imagery and even conversation regarding female sexuality is ignored and commonly ridiculed.”

The music itself featured Philanthrobeats/High Sheen’s HaHaHa, Toby Nicholas (Six Axle), Floyd b2b Forty Winks (Philanthrobeats), and Bop Gun (Smiddy). The night consisted of light and frivolous Michael Jackson remixes, the occasional trip up on the mixing decks, and a descent into heavy insanity with HaHaHa headlining. The change was pretty abrupt, but people seemed too enamoured to notice or care, and of course, when surrounded by floor to ceiling vaginas its hard not to fall into the spirit of acceptance. GUM had heard rumours of shocking visuals to be projected on the walls, namely a full on video of a human birth, but no such thing was to be found for better or for worse. All in all people should be thoroughly patting themselves on the backs for throwing such a successful night for such a good cause.

To finish up, a thank you from the Rubix boys:

“From us Rubix guys we’ll just say like it was a pleasure for us to be involved with something so special and be a part of that movement. The Philanthrobeats guys all deserve big shiny medals or trophies or however you award just being fucking ace! They are doing amazing work not just in the night clubbing community of Glasgow but creating opportunities for people to make change happen whilst having a good old knees-up at the same time! Thanks to everyone who came down and supported the night and look out for more Rubix/Philanthrobeats collabs in the future!”